Chez Robert Giron

Welcome to Chez Robert Giron, a blog of random thoughts about life, books, art, film, music, and theatre.

Sunday, April 29, 2012

Yvette Neisser Moreno of Silver Spring, Maryland has won the 13th Annual Gival Press Poetry Award-2011 for her ms titled Grip. Her manuscript was read anonymously and chosen by Clifford Bernier, winner of the award for the previous year. Yvette Neisser Moreno will receive a cash award of $1000.00 and copies of her book. The book is due to be released in October of this year.

Biography:

Yvette Neisser Moreno is a poet, translator, and literary advocate. Her poems have appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies, including Foreign Policy in Focus, Virginia Quarterly Review, and Poetic Voices Without Borders. She co-translated with Patricia Bejarano Fisher South Pole/Polo Sur by María Teresa Ogliastri and translated Difficult Beauty by Luis Alberto Ambroggio. She has been featured on the public radio program "The Poet and the Poem." Her book reviews and articles on poetry and translation have appeared in the Palestine-Israel Journal, The Montserrat Review, POST NO ILLS, and elsewhere. She is on the programming committee of Split This Rock Poetry Festival and is the founder of the DC-Area Literary Translators Network (DC-ALT). In 2012, she was the first runner-up for the Maureen Egen Writers Exchange Award sponsored by Poets & Writers. She lives in Silver Spring, Maryland.

Friday, April 20, 2012

Hedy Habra Releases Two Books

Hedy Habra of Michigan has recently had two books released; one in the USA and the other in Spain.

Flying Carpets:

The stories in Flying Carpets recover lost, partially forgotten and imaginary spaces, progressing from the concrete to the universal. The first two sections move between Egypt and Lebanon with a touch of magic realism. The characters become less rooted in time and space in the second half of the collection as the dreamlike elements intensify. Throughout the book, storytelling and fortunetelling evoke a mythical past that is at the same time lost yet alive: love, loss, the yearning for alternate worlds, and the need to reinvent oneself through art permeate its pages.
(published by March Street Press)

This scholarly book explores the function of characters’ interiority, and the way Vargas Llosa uses the linguistic sign to create images or to reproduce visual art (paintings, photographs) by means of the character’s fantasies or musings, which in turn, convert them into fictional authors and at times into producers of short films. This study underlines the cultural context of the erotic imagination and its role in artistic creation as well as in the development of individual thinking and the articulation of power struggles.
(published by Iberoamericana/Vervuert)

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Signature's" God of Carnage" Hits the Mark

Who would think that a simple argument between two young boys would be the catalyst that allows their parents to unravel?

Suffice to say that a well written play is the basis for good theatre and certainly award-winning playwright Yasmina Reza keeps the characters rolling and we the audience are with them every step of the way.

Once again, director Joe Calarco delivers a superb production and the cast, which includes Andy Brownstein, Naomi Jacobson, Vanessa Lock, and Paul Morella, fits perfectly. Last night's performance, the opening night, was perfect! I can't imagine there is anything to change.

It's a 90-minute play, but emotionally not unlike "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" the audience is taken on a roller coaster ride.

I can't leave without giving James Knonzer, scenic design, a call out for his beautiful set which is meticulously done. For the book lover, one will take notice, much as an art lover would with a neighbor's kid who likes to spray paint a canvas.

Go see this play, you will not be disappointed and sadly it works on various levels, not unlike today's cultural and political topics that have us all on edge waiting to explode.

In memoriam of Reed Whittemore

Sunday, April 08, 2012

Small Independent Film Group Trying to Get to Cannes 2012 for Film Debut

A small group of independent film makers from Austin, Texas recently received word that their short film Clowns Never Lie will have its debut at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival during the Cannes Court Métrage (short film series).

The Madrid-born director Mario Troncoso wrote the screenplay with the actor who plays the clown, Hugo Vargas-Zesati. The composer, Vincent Van Horn, who happens to be my second cousin, also plays in the film and is the film's composer and producer.

Here below are some links about the article that appeared in the Austin Chronicle and a site at which supporters can make donations so that the small group can get to the Cannes Film Festival in May.